A Chance To Live
Campaign victory as heart op target hit
WE'VE finally done it. Six years after The Northern Echo launched a campaign to cut waiting times for heart patients, we have hit our target.
In 1999, we highlighted the disgrace of heart patients dying on the waiting list by launching The Chance To Live campaign and calling for a three-month maximum wait for heart surgery.
At that time, many UK patients needing heart surgery faced waits of more than 18 months, when patients in Holland were seen within three months.
Inspired by our campaign and determined to improve the situation, the then Health Secretary, Darlington MP Alan Milburn, announced a national campaign to modernise heart services.
Last month, hospital bosses in the North-East revealed that no one in the region was waiting more than three months for heart surgery.
Yesterday, the new Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, confirmed that all patients in England requiring heart bypasses or angioplasties - a procedure to unblock arteries - were having their operations within three months.
Figures published yesterday show the three-month target was hit in March, three years ahead of schedule.
Heart bypasses and angioplasty are the most common types of heart operations, totalling 69,000 last year.
The results come after a major drive to modernise heart services. At James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough, the heart unit was greatly expanded.
The Freeman heart unit in Newcastle also saw investment to increase capacity.
Extra cash was injected at James Cook, which allowed hospital bosses to build three extra operating theatres, extend the intensive care unit and provide an extra ward for recovering heart patients.
At the same time, hospital bosses were given more cash for surgeons, physicians, anaesthetists, technicians and nurses needed to run the expanded unit.
Last night, Dr Jim Hall, head of cardiothoracic services at the James Cook hospital, said: "We have seen a huge improvement compared with the late 1990s when we had people dying on the waiting list.
"The system now has the extra capacity that we needed to do the job."
The consultant cardiologist said it was "not just about bricks and mortar" but about the extra resources provided to allow the hospital to take on extra staff.
"We now have a full compliment of highly-trained staff, which allows us to treat more people, more quickly." he said.
By 2008, the maximum wait for heart patients is due to be cut to only 18 weeks.
Eve Knight, service development manager with the British Cardiac Patients Association, has followed the progress of The Northern Echo's heart campaign from the beginning.
She said: "The services have been transformed and we are extremely pleased with the progress which has been made."
Mrs Knight praised The Northern Echo for "making a difference" and paid tribute to Alan Milburn for ordering a wholesale shake-up of cardiothoracic services.
She said: "Alan Milburn felt very strongly about what was needed. He was committed and he changed things."
But she said there was still room for improvement and urged the NHS to speed up the patient journey to reduce delays between seeing a GP and undergoing surgery.
Britain's biggest heart charity, the British Heart Foundation, also acknowledged the huge improvements in recent years, but pointed out that Britain has only been catching up the rest of the developed world.
Maura Gillespie, head of policy at the charity, said: "Things are gradually getting better for patients with heart disease. Waiting times have fallen and heart patients who used to wait months for attention, or worse still, wouldn't have been referred for specialist care at all, now get better access to treatment and services.
"This is great progress, but it has only enabled us to catch up to where we should have been many years ago."
The heart announcement was part of an up-beat report by NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp, which showed acrossthe-board improvements in waiting times and services.
The number of people waiting for surgery fell to a record low of 822,000 in March, compared with 1.3 million in April 1998.
2:33pm Thursday 14th April 2005
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